Corpus Clock for 1.8 million dollars is quite imposing

Money can buy you everything, but can it buy you love? It can buy you the most expensive commemorative clock, but can it buy you lifetime of memories? Maybe not, however that doesn’t stop a fan of John Harrison, pioneer of Longitude to get a £1m Corpus Clock built for the namesake college. The 1.5-meter wheel is a Grasshopper, one from a fantasy sci-fi series and represents a method called “Grasshopper escapement”, explained the creator of the clock Dr Taylor. This clock also refers to the device used by Harrison to turn rotational motion into a pendulum motion for timekeeping.

Described, as the grasshopper moving across the top of the circular timepiece, and animation appears that enthralls clock-watchers. As a stark reminder of our own short life, on the hour every hour a chain drops down onto a wooden coffin hidden behind the clock. A number of LED’s placed in the casing, light up the appropriate “slit” in the hours, minute and second. The clock is to be unveiled by Prof Stephen Hawking.Source